The Crow

About This File

Doom I & Doom II DEATHMATCH. RECOMMENDED: 4 player network, with
fast machines. (i.e. all DX/33 and up.) Was playable with 4 players on
two DX/33's and two SX/25's, but it wasn't fast. This is a stalking level.
Although it seems large, there are so many overlappings and connections
and teleporters that it shrinks a bit. Nevertheless, it's a _big_ place,
which makes it easy for someone who knows the level well to stalk.
Weapons aren't plentiful, you have to go spelunking to get to 'em.
I designed the level so that if you just fragged your opponent you know
where he's gonna go because all the weapons are laid out in the TUNNELS.
Fortunately for you, there are multiple sniper points around all weapons
with the tools of the sniper, the chaingun and shotgun, in easy reach in
case you forgot yours. This area works great for 3 or 4 players, but
with only 2 the TUNNELS don't do their job quite so well.
There are lots of suicide areas. Learn them. Beware them. In
one of them, the suicidal maniac can defend himself against attack quite
well (read: weapons) so beware stalker...
ARENAS! This level has a bunch of good arena-sized arenas, all
except one within hearing distance of at least a couple others. I went
all-out designing creative arenas. My particular favorite is the one with
see-through pillars. Don't hide behind one too long! There are also
mutiple-altitude platforms, stairs and lifts, teleporters...
ENJOY!
Hint: In the room with four teleporters: (You'll know which one
soon enough... you will probably learn to hate this room) No, you can't get
the weapons in there. Yes, they're there for a reason.

Maybe just a little rough around the edges. But then, you'll be running for your life, who cares? There was one problem with R_FindPlane in the "tree" arena which I was unable to replicate ... if somebody encounters this AND can fix it, let me know.

Text File

================================================================
Title : "The Crow" (HINT: stare at the map of the
right-hand zone for a while.)
Second WAD title : "Really, Really, Huge, Angry, Rocket-Launching
Bird in a Golden Cage" (subtitled "Death made Easy")
Filename : thecrow.zip {
thecrow.wad
thecrow2.wad
masochsm.wad
masochs2.wad
thecrow.txt }
Author : Cory Damon Dodt
Email Address : cdamond@ocf.berkeley.edu
cdamond@uclink2.berkeley.edu
Misc. Author Info : Likes to play PEACE.WAD until he has at least
30 self-frags. Mean with a rocket launcher at
point blank range.
Shameless Plugs to : PEACE.WAD, INFINITY.WAD, and LEDGES.WAD...
Nothing like hitting 100 frags in less than an
hour...
Included free of charge : masochsm.wad, an amusing diversion I ripped out in
about 5 minutes. It's fun, trust me. It replaces
e1m1/map01. Basically just a small room with a
Cyberjerk and 2-4 people trying to kill each other
in it. Do whatever you want with it, it wasn't
exactly an original concept to begin with :-P
Description : (long)
Doom I & Doom II DEATHMATCH. RECOMMENDED: 4 player network, with
fast machines. (i.e. all DX/33 and up.) Was playable with 4 players on
two DX/33's and two SX/25's, but it wasn't fast. This is a stalking level.
Although it seems large, there are so many overlappings and connections
and teleporters that it shrinks a bit. Nevertheless, it's a _big_ place,
which makes it easy for someone who knows the level well to stalk.
Weapons aren't plentiful, you have to go spelunking to get to 'em.
I designed the level so that if you just fragged your opponent you know
where he's gonna go because all the weapons are laid out in the TUNNELS.
Fortunately for you, there are multiple sniper points around all weapons
with the tools of the sniper, the chaingun and shotgun, in easy reach in
case you forgot yours. This area works great for 3 or 4 players, but
with only 2 the TUNNELS don't do their job quite so well.
There are lots of suicide areas. Learn them. Beware them. In
one of them, the suicidal maniac can defend himself against attack quite
well (read: weapons) so beware stalker...
ARENAS! This level has a bunch of good arena-sized arenas, all
except one within hearing distance of at least a couple others. I went
all-out designing creative arenas. My particular favorite is the one with
see-through pillars. Don't hide behind one too long! There are also
mutiple-altitude platforms, stairs and lifts, teleporters...
ENJOY!
Hint: In the room with four teleporters: (You'll know which one
soon enough... you will probably learn to hate this room) No, you can't get
the weapons in there. Yes, they're there for a reason.
================================================================

* Play Information *

Episode and Level # : E1M1--> thecrow & masochsm
MAP01--> tc2 & masochs2
(I included Doom I and Doom II versions of both
wads. masochsm's so small you won't mind...
tc & tc2 are pretty big, but I included both
versions rather than a batch to create the second,
I'll explain why later in this document.)
Single Player : Possible, but why?
Cooperative 2-4 Player : Again, quite pointless
Deathmatch 2-4 Player : YES, rocks!
Difficulty Settings : Skills 1-2 for minimum decorations (runs a bit
faster.) There are no monsters, and weapons etc.
are the same on every skill.
New Sounds : No
New Graphics : Yes, 13 new textures. Easy to spot.
New Music : Yes type doom2 -nomusic at the command line, then
put on the soundtrack for The Crow. ;)
Demos Replaced : None

* Construction *

Build time : It ate my life
Base : New level(s) from scratch
Editor(s) used : DEU 5.21 gcc, DCK 1.0, BSP1.2x, Wacker b7,
DEUTEX 2.9 & 3.1, DM2CONV, and (last but not least)
ADE2.
Known Bugs : Maybe just a little rough around the edges.
But then, you'll be running for your life, who
cares? There was one problem with R_FindPlane in
the "tree" arena which I was unable to replicate
... if somebody encounters this AND can fix it,
let me know.

* Copyright / Permissions *

Authors MAY use this WAD to build levels of their own. I love to see
new ideas implemented.

You MAY distribute this WAD, provided you include this file, with
no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic
format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file
intact.

* Where to get this WAD *
FTP sites:
--ftp.cdrom.com, the site I can type in my sleep (and do)
--cdrom's mirrors, I suppose.

* Design Notes *
Five of the new textures are just visual clues that tell the
deathmatchers where to find stuff. "To the BFG," that kind of thing. The
other eight are murals that you should memorize and use to your advantage.
Each arena has a mural, and each wall in the tele-hub has a corresponding
mural. To get to the hub, jump in the nearest teleporter. To get to a
particular arena, just jump in the teleporter next to the corresponding
mural.
There is an exit switch. It's as clearly marked as you're gonna
get. It requires a small self-sacrifice to use, but it ain't coop. I hate
those.
THIS LEVEL IS DESIGNED FOR MORE THAN 2 DEATHMATCHERS. Preferably
more than 3, since TeamDoom is my thing. There are many areas where two
players cooperating with one another can survive where one player alone
would not... like the series of lifts up to the supercharges.
I like to lose my opponents once in a while, so encounters with
them are more meaningful and there is more incentive to pursue a frag to
its completion. Getting lost is certainly possible. However, once the
players become familiar with the level, they should be able to find each
other quickly (instantly, in some cases). That's why everything is
centralized. The two hubs (triangle room as hub of the tunnels,
eight-teleporter room as hub of the arenas) are connected and marines can
jump from one to the other quickly if they know what they're doing.
BEWARE OF TELEFRAGS!!! If you have to use the hub, move your ass.
Remember that telefrags are highly possible even by random chance, since
the teleporters are basically your standard mode of travel.
WHY I INCLUDED BOTH DOOM I AND DOOM II VERSIONS:
Simply put, converting this wad to Doom II was a Nightmare
(skill level 5). My new graphics included patches from Doom I, one of
which wasn't in the Doom II wadfile. If I used DM2CONV /TEXTURE on the
level it didn't know what to do with the new textures, so it just left them
in. Fortunately DEUTEX 3.1 saved my bacon here, since it autodetects missing
stuff. After crashing Doom about 5 different ways getting the new textures
to work, I tried to add in Doom II items, and knowing that DEU5.21 doesn't
support Doom II I got a bunch of new editors. WADED: too annoying, and
doesn't support new textures. EDMAP: not bad overall, but doesn't support
new textures AND seems to be unable to save a wad without destroying the
NODES. . . BSP was unable to successfully build them after saving with
EDMAP; the level would load but look like utter shit. DCK2.0: Great
interface, but wouldn't load my level in any way, shape or form (I think it
was just too big.) I was about to start looking for DEU][ (hacked evil
version or not) when I discovered ADE2. Loved it, used it. Anyway, after
all that I discovered that the only way to save space on two versions was
to include the graphics as a separate wad, because the two sets of map data
were completely incompatible. Since this ends up saving very little space
I just went with user-friendliness....you get both wads, fully made and
autonomous.

*Coming Soon*
A better team implementation. I.e., areas and weapons you CAN'T
get to unless someone ELSE wants you to get there.
A couple 4-player demos, if I can ever to remember to record them. :P
New sounds?

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Another case of a map that looks pretty dodgy, then the automap is like art. Seemed to be a common theme back then - Also I assume this is before the Dead Souls midi was easy to get hold of. 3 just for the cool line art.

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I guess this was meant to be a serious wad, just using a trick to make the C-Demon hard to see. I don't think it was a deliberate troll of the style that caught on later, eg Sand Chain and the Terry wads. IMHO it nowhere near holds the record for "worst wad ever" (even if it did once) so it is now "over-rated" in that respect. I was a bit disappointed, I was expecting worse LoL.

Doomers these days have varying levels of patience. I know I have some of the worst when it comes to quickly finishing areas and moving on, which is why I prefer shorter levels most of the time. this particular map, a Maximum Doom map by the way, is one that completely tested my patience.
this is 8 levels long, from E1M1 to E1M8, and is sort of a proto-slaughtermap episode replacement. every map here has at least 200 monsters, and the layouts of each say that they are compact in size. so the action would be pretty good and fun right?
WRONG
while it's fun to kill all these enemies, this is honestly horribly balanced. on the first level, you only really get a shotgun and a chaingun, and it took me a while to get just one armor too. is that the worst part? I can actually enjoy the challenge of such a gameplay scenario so no. what's problematic about each and every level in this wad is that when you're not killing enemies, you're just sort of fucking around. in other words, you're switch hunting. but this is the worst kind due to lifts that have zero indications that they are lifts, as well as switches that have zero indication of what they did. not to mention some walls are triggers, when they really don't have any indication that they really do anything. oh yes, and mandatory secrets and backtracking. I would like the combat more if it gave more weapons too, not one plasma gun or BFG in sight, and all that backtracking just...fucking...headdesk. there's no reliable way to even speedrun this, to the point where I wonder if the author ever realized that other's would tire the fuck out over it. "these are the easy ones" this has all the hallmarks of a bad Maximum Doom map.
it's amazing how varied my Maximum Doom experience is so far. there are some really fun maps, mediocre but quick maps, and some long and nasty ones. I'm honestly trying to avoid reviewing any maps from there but i'll make an exception for this particular one since it's just unbelievably bad.

More an exercise in 3-d artwork than a game. Just someone's bedroom with a HK in a tiny lobby outside the door, and a Caco in a tiny yard outside the window. A BFG and Invisibilty Sphere are also in the yard but you can't get out there. I think the name is a clue - maybe this was the start of a bigger level, then abandoned. He ought to have allowed it as a base for development.